This morning your driver will meet you at your ship at 9AM for the approximately 2.5 hour drive to Berlin. Upon arrival, your local guide will meet you for touring.
You will first drive through Potsdamer Platz, a striking example of urban renewal in action. As late as the 1990s, this was a desolate wasteland and now you will find Berlin’s business center. Your first stop will be the Topography of Terror. For history lovers, this outdoor museum on the site of the former headquarters of the Gestapo and SS is an essential visit. The museum is an outdoor timeline of Nazi terror in Germany.
Today your driver will also drive by the Checkpoint Charlie. After the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the checkpoint remained an official crossing point until the reunification in October 1990 when the booth was removed and the watchtower was later destroyed. The course of the former wall is now marked on the street with a line of bricks and a copy of the booth and sign that once marked the border crossing was later erected where Checkpoint Charlie once stood.
Afterwards you may stop by the “East-Side Gallery.” This is the longest cohesive section of the Berlin Wall. This stretch of the Berlin Wall has been painted by various artists after the fall and it stretches for a mile or so. We recommend that you walk a bit and explore some of the different subjects portrayed.
Later today you will also visit one of the most interesting exhibits detailing life in a divided Germany – the Berlin Wall Memorial and Documentation Center. This is located direct at a former border strip on Bernauer Strasse and both the no-man’s-land strip and watchtower have been preserved. The Documentation Center shows the history of the Wall, its construction and how it divided the city. You can walk right in no-man’s land yourself – on the footsteps of those who tried to escape communist oppression and flee to the West.
After touring, your guide will remain behind in Berlin and you will return with your driver to your ship.
Exeter Services: Vehicle & Driver (12 Hours); Berlin Guide (6 Hours)